Top 10 Mobile Publishers of 2016

We carry them around with us where ever we go and as soon as we are provided with the slightest of gaps we will whip them out and they gain our undivided attention, they are our smartphones.

But what would we do on these devices without the games and applications that provide us with endless hours of entertainment? Would we just use them to communicate with one another? I mean how boring does that sound!

Games and applications form an integral part of our undeniable connection to our handheld devices and without the companies who produce these games and applications that connections would just not be the same.

App Annie, a business intelligence company and analyst firm, on the 10th of March 2017, released the annual list of the 52 top publishers of games and apps for 2016. This list was comprised of the top 52 earners by combined iOS and Google Play revenue from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016. The revenue rankings are based on revenue earned from paid downloads and in-app purchases on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. They do not include revenue earned from in-app advertising or subscriptions outside app store channels.

Here is the top 10 publishers of 2016:

10) Niantic (USA)

Niantic, Inc. is an American software development company which is based in San Francisco. The company is best known for developing the augmented reality mobile games Ingress and the hit game Pokémon Go. The company was formed as Niantic Labs in 2010 by Keyhole, Inc. founder John Hanke as an internal startup within Google.

9) Netmarble Games (South Korea)
Netmarble Games is a mobile game company based in South Korea. As of November 2015, it had capitalized $9 billion of the market. It is a major mobile game publisher that serves over 120 countries worldwide as of 2015, racking up $900 million in profits for that year alone. Netmarble has developed successful mobile games, including Marvel: Future Fight, Seven Knights, Raven (Evilbane in U.S.) and Everybody’s Marble.

8) Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. (Japan)
Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc is an arcade, mobile and home video game publisher, based in Japan. The company also publishes video, music and other entertainment products related to its video game IPs. It is the product of a merger between the video game development divisions of Bandai and Namco. The company has developed various games of the Pac-Man, Dragon Ball Z and Naruto franchises.

7) Line (Japan)
Line is a freeware app for instant communications on electronic devices such as smartphones, tablet computers and personal computers. Line users exchange texts, images, video and audio, and conduct free VoIP conversations and video conferences. Line first launched in Japan in 2011, reaching 100 million users within eighteen months and 200 million users only six months later. They also created their own series of games, only those with an account to the Line application can install and play Line Game games. Players can connect with friends, send and accept items, and earn friend points. The game range includes puzzles, match-three, side-scroller, musical performance, simulation, battle, and spot-the-difference games. Line Corporation announced its games had been downloaded 200 million times worldwide.

6) Mixi (Japan)
Mixi is an online Japanese social networking service. It was founded in 1999 and is owned by Mixi, Inc. As of September 2012, Mixi had about 14 million monthly active users, with about 8.6 million of those on smartphones.They also publish the popular mobile freemium game Monster Strike which is a mobile physics game with elements of RPGs, strategy games and cooperative multiplayer.

5) Activision Blizzard (USA)
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game developer that is headquartered in Santa Monica, California and was founded in 2008. The company currently includes five business units that each service a different section of the entertainment market, they are: Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, Major League Gaming, Activision Blizzard Studios and King Digital Entertainment. King Digital Entertainment focuses on mobile gaming and was responsible for hit games such as Candy Crush Saga, Pet Rescue Saga, and Farm Heroes Saga.

4) Machine Zone, Inc. (USA)
MZ is a privately held technology company, founded in 2008 and based in Palo Alto, California. The company is best known for its widely advertised freemium mobile MMO strategy games Game of War: Fire Age and Mobile Strike, which have both simultaneously been ranked among the top ten highest-grossing mobile games.

3) NetEase (China)
NetEase is a Chinese Internet technology company providing online services centred on content, community, communications and commerce. Founded in 1997, the company was a key pioneer in the development of Internet services for China. Today, NetEase develops and operates some of China’s online PC and mobile games, advertising services, e-mail services and e-commerce platforms. NetEase is responsible for high profile mobile games such as Fantasy Westward Journey mobile, Westward Journey Online mobile, Invincible, Kung Fu Panda 3 mobile game and many more.

2) Supercell (Finland)
Supercell is a mobile game development company founded in June 2010 in Helsinki, Finland. The company’s debut game was the browser game Gunshine.net, and after its release in 2011, Supercell started developing games for mobile devices. Since then, the company has fully released four mobile games: Hay Day, Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, and Clash Royale, which are freemium games and have been very successful for the company.

1) Tencent (China)
Tencent is a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries provide media, entertainment, internet and mobile phone value-added services and operate online advertising services in China.[3] Its headquarters are in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. Tencent is one of the largest Internet companies, as well as the largest gaming company in the world. Some of its many services include social network, web portals, e-commerce, mobile games and multiplayer online games. Its offerings in China include the well-known instant messenger Tencent QQ and one of the largest web portals, QQ.com. Mobile chat service WeChat has helped bolster Tencent’s continued expansion into smartphone services.

By Dean Workman